Testing charged current quasi-elastic and multinucleon interaction models in the NEUT neutrino interaction generator with published datasets from the MiniBooNE and MINERνA experiments

Abstract

The MiniBooNE large axial mass anomaly has prompted a great deal of theoretical work on sophisticated Charged Current Quasi-Elastic (CCQE) neutrino interaction models in recent years. As the dominant interaction mode at T2K energies, and the signal process in oscillation analyses, it is important for the T2K experiment to include realistic CCQE cross section uncertainties in T2K analyses. To this end, T2K's Neutrino Interaction Working Group has implemented a number of recent models in NEUT, T2K's primary neutrino interaction event generator. In this paper, we give an overview of the models implemented, and present fits to published νµ and νµ CCQE cross section measurements from the MiniBooNE and MINERνA experiments. The results of the fits are used to select a default cross section model for future T2K analyses, and to constrain the cross section uncertainties of the model. We find a model consisting of a modified relativistic Fermi gas model and multinucleon interactions most consistently describes the available data.

First measurement of the νμ charged-current cross section on a water target without pions in the final state

“…The tuning is applied based on best-fit values from a fit of three models implemented in NEUT to external MINERνA and MiniBooNE CCQE measurements [30]. The NEUT model uses the Smith-Moniz relativistic Fermi gas model [31] with a relativistic random phase approximation (RPA) [32] and a multinucleon exchange (2p2h) model [32,33].…”

Updated T2K measurements of muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance using 1.5×1021 protons on target

“…The fitted values are used to provide constraints for the fit to extract oscillation parameters of the far detector data. Data from MiniBooNE [27,28] and MINERνA [29,30] on CCQE-like events are no longer exploited in the near detector fit for setting priors for the CCQE axial mass and the normalization of the multinucleon (2p-2h) contribution, but are used in the choice of the default model; RFG þ RPA þ 2p-2h was chosen because it is most consistently able to describe current measurements from MiniBooNE and MINERνA (see [31] for details).…”

Combined Analysis of Neutrino and Antineutrino Oscillations at T2K

“…The charged-current quasielastic (CCQE) interactions are modeled with a relativistic Fermi gas nuclear model with relativistic corrections for long-range correlations using the random phase approximation (RPA) as applied by Nieves et al [22]. The choice of the CCQE nuclear model was made based on fits to external CCQElike data [23] from the MiniBooNE [24,25] and MINERvA [26,27] experiments. Interactions on more than one nucleon are modeled with an implementation of the 2p-2h model developed by Nieves et al [28,29].…”